The Agents of William Marshal Volume I: A Medieval Romance Bundle
THE AGENTS OF WILLIAM MARSHAL COLLECTION
A Medieval Romance Bundle
By Kathryn Le Veque
© Copyright 2018, 2019, 2020 by Kathryn Le Veque
Kindle Edition
Text by Kathryn Le Veque
Reproduction of any kind except where it pertains to short quotes in relation to advertising or promotion is strictly prohibited.
All Rights Reserved.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
License Notes:
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook, once purchased, may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it or borrow it, or it was not purchased for you and given as a gift for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. If this book was purchased on an unauthorized platform, then it is a pirated and/or unauthorized copy and violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Do not purchase or accept pirated copies. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work.
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Kathryn Le Veque Novels
Medieval Romance:
De Wolfe Pack Series:
Warwolfe
The Wolfe
Nighthawk
ShadowWolfe
DarkWolfe
A Joyous de Wolfe Christmas
BlackWolfe
Serpent
A Wolfe Among Dragons
Scorpion
StormWolfe
Dark Destroyer
The Lion of the North
Walls of Babylon
The Best Is Yet To Be
The de Russe Legacy:
The Falls of Erith
Lord of War: Black Angel
The Iron Knight
Beast
The Dark One: Dark Knight
The White Lord of Wellesbourne
Dark Moon
Dark Steel
A de Russe Christmas Miracle
The de Lohr Dynasty:
While Angels Slept
Rise of the Defender
Steelheart
Shadowmoor
Silversword
Spectre of the Sword
Unending Love
Archangel
Lords of East Anglia:
While Angels Slept
Godspeed
Great Lords of le Bec:
Great Protector
House of de Royans:
Lord of Winter
To the Lady Born
The Centurion
Lords of Eire:
Echoes of Ancient Dreams
Blacksword
The Darkland
Ancient Kings of Anglecynn:
The Whispering Night
Netherworld
Battle Lords of de Velt:
The Dark Lord
Devil’s Dominion
Bay of Fear
The Dark Lord’s First Christmas
Reign of the House of de Winter:
Lespada
Swords and Shields
De Reyne Domination:
Guardian of Darkness
With Dreams
The Fallen One
House of d’Vant:
Tender is the Knight (House of d’Vant)
The Red Fury (House of d’Vant)
The Dragonblade Series:
Fragments of Grace
Dragonblade
Island of Glass
The Savage Curtain
The Fallen One
Great Marcher Lords of de Lara
Lord of the Shadows
Dragonblade
House of St. Hever
Fragments of Grace
Island of Glass
Queen of Lost Stars
Lords of Pembury:
The Savage Curtain
Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood Trilogy
The Thunder Lord
The Thunder Warrior
The Thunder Knight
The Great Knights of de Moray:
Shield of Kronos
The Gorgon
The House of De Nerra:
The Promise
The Falls of Erith
Vestiges of Valor
Realm of Angels
Highland Warriors of Munro:
The Red Lion
Deep Into Darkness
The House of de Garr:
Lord of Light
Realm of Angels
Saxon Lords of Hage:
The Crusader
Kingdom Come
High Warriors of Rohan:
High Warrior
The House of Ashbourne:
Upon a Midnight Dream
The House of D’Aurilliac:
Valiant Chaos
The House of De Dere:
Of Love and Legend
St. John and de Gare Clans:
The Warrior Poet
The House of de Bretagne:
The Questing
The House of Summerlin:
The Legend
The Kingdom of Hendocia:
Kingdom by the Sea
The Executioner Knights:
By the Unholy Hand
The Promise (also Noble Knights of de Nerra)
The Mountain Dark
Starless
A Time of End
Contemporary Romance:
Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:
Valley of the Shadow
The Eden Factor
Canyon of the Sphinx
The American Heroes Anthology Series:
The Lucius Robe
Fires of Autumn
Evenshade
Sea of Dreams
Purgatory
Other non-connected Contemporary Romance:
Lady of Heaven
Darkling, I Listen
In the Dreaming Hour
River’s End
The Fountain
Sons of Poseidon:
The Immortal Sea
Pirates of Britannia Series (with Eliza Knight):
Savage of the Sea by Eliza Knight
Leader of Titans by Kathryn Le Veque
The Sea Devil by Eliza Knight
Sea Wolfe by Kathryn Le Veque
Note: All Kathryn’s novels are designed to be read as stand-alones, although many have cross-over characters or cross-over family groups. Novels that are grouped together have related characters or family groups. You will notice that some series have the same books; that is because they are cross-overs. A hero in one book may be the secondary character in another.
There is NO reading order except by chronology, but even in that case, you can still read the books as stand-alones. No novel is connected to another by a cliff hanger, and every book has an HEA.
Series are clearly marked. All series contain the same characters or family groups except the American Heroes Series, which is an anthology with unrelated characters.
For more information, find it in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.
Contents
/> By The Unholy Hand
The Mountain Dark
Starless
The Promise
Godspeed
High Warrior
BY THE UNHOLY HAND
A Medieval Romance
Book One in the Unholy Trinity Series
By Kathryn Le Veque
Author’s Note
It’s been a long time since I’ve had so much fun writing a story.
I came up with the Unholy Trinity when I wrote the novel Lord of Winter in 2015. Maxton, Kress, and Achilles were three loners who essentially liked to work as a team and who hated the de Lohr brothers, as well as Marcus Burton, so Lord of Winter was fun to write in that sense – pious, righteous Christopher and his antithesis, Maxton of Loxbeare. They weren’t exactly enemies, but they didn’t approve of each other, and Maxton felt Christopher was a goody-goody. No other way to put it than that. Maxton did hard work, underhanded and dirty work, while Christopher knew the right people, made the right moves, and received all the glory.
In this novel, we’re at least ten years after Lord of Winter, when everyone has gone on the Crusades with Richard the Lionheart, although the path home after the Crusades ended has been different for all of them. Maxton and his companions didn’t come home directly, but rather spent time (how can I say this…?) goofing off, being mercenaries and killers, whoring, and being basically directionless.
It got them into trouble.
There are quite a few secondary characters in this novel, so you may have to read passages over twice to pick up on all of the nuances. Not only do the de Lohr brothers make a brief appearance, but so does a very young Sean de Lara just as he assumes his spying duties against King John (you’ll read his full story in Lord of the Shadows), and we also briefly meet Dashiell du Reims and Bric MacRohan – again – both when they were very young. Their stories happen a good fifteen or more years after this novel, so think of them as young, handsome, and hungry for glory.
Another prominent secondary character is William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. William has made appearance in a few of my novels, including The Whispering Night, and he has often been described as England’s Greatest Knight. Considering I’m writing about some of England’s greatest (fictional) knights, I put them in good company by working with, and serving, the man who was referred to as The Marshal.
One of the fun things about this book was researching Medieval poisons. There are many plants that were known in Medieval times for their deadly quality, a few that are mentioned in this book. One of those is called dwale – what we now know as belladonna, or deadly nightshade. Historically speaking, it makes an interesting read to see how the poison was used. Deadly nightshade has been around for thousands of years and was even used by the Greeks who wanted to do away with their enemies. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts (or inviting you to their feasts!).
Another fun bit of research I did was about Medieval banking – and yes, there was such a thing, really emerging strongly in the 12th century. They had “deposit bankers” (which were just what they sounded like), and “merchant bankers”, etc. Italy, specifically Genoa, was the center of the early banking world around this time. Makes for some fascinating reading.
There’s quite a bit that goes on in this book – there are some very bottom-of-the-barrel moments. There is angst and real fear in some parts. But there is also a lot of soul-searching and growth on the part of our hero, as well as our heroine, so I believe this story is mostly about hope and redemption. Can a man change his stars? Can he right the wrongs of the past? And can he find within himself compassion and understanding that he always believed he lacked? All valid questions, and he works them out for himself with a little help from our heroine.
A short pronunciation guide and things that are real/fictional:
Blitha – Pronounced with a short “I” sound, as in bliss. (Blitha is not actually a saint; this is a fictitious figure)
Achilles – uh-KILL-eez
Ceri – Like Sarah, only with an “ee” on the end – like Sar-EE
Bishop of Essex – fictitious
William Marshal – Real. Literally, the greatest (real) knight England has ever seen.
Farringdon House – Fictitious, though there is a very large Medieval district called Farringdon, basically where Trafalgar Square is in present day.
Bishopsgate (part of the London Medieval wall system) – Real.
Landmarks outside of the wall at Bishopsgate – Except for St. Blitha Abbey, real.
I don’t normally include drawings or charts, things I use when I work on my stories, but in this case, I am. I’m a very visual thinker, so I often draw floor plans and such when I write to help me figure things out (like chambers and character movement), so I’m including the floor plan of St. Blitha (drawn by our heroine towards the end of the tale), and also of Farringdon House’s lower level. Hopefully, it gives you a good visual like it did me. But I’ll make the disclaimer here that I’m not an artist. Still, I thought it would be fun for the reader to see my original drawings.
Now, with no further ado, enjoy the story!
Love,
Love is all truth;
Lust, full of forged lies
~ William Shakespeare
~ MIHI CREDE (TRUST ME) ~
Year of Our Lord 1199 A.D., The Month of August
Near the convent dedicated to St. Blitha of the Order of St. Dominica
North of the city walls, Bishopsgate
He loved her.
He said he loved her and that made this happening a right and true thing, consecrated by God. If God was love, then Rhyne de Leybourne was possessed by the Holy Spirit, and all things fine and good in the world.
He said he loved her.
She had believed him.
It had been soft and dark and quiet in the sod barn where he’d taken her, just to the east of St. Blitha where she served as a pledge. Dumped there was more like it, deposited by a greedy aunt who wanted nothing to do with her wealthy niece. She wanted the girl’s money, though.
That made it okay, in her mind.
But there were those who had cared for the niece. Rhyne did, in fact. Or, at least he told himself that. The truth was that he loved her money, too, and he wasn’t so willing to let it go. It had taken him so very long to discover where her aunt had sent her. When he finally located her, all he could speak of was his longing for her, and she in turn declared her longing for him. He’d come for her now and would make everything right between them, as he’d promised.
But first, he would demonstrate his love for her so there would be no doubt in her mind that he was sincere.
She’d been by the gently bubbling stream just outside the abbey walls, drawing water for the wash, when he’d come up on his shiny brown stallion. It wasn’t unusual for her to be outside of the abbey walls because that’s where the main water source was, so when he pulled her to the sod barn, no one noticed.
No one even looked for her.
At first, he had been gentle, and their hugs of joy had been innocent. But that innocence was short-lived when he pinned her against the stable wall and his mouth began to wander, his tongue invading nearly every orifice on her head. She’d resisted at first, fearful of this very intimate attention, but he had ignored her resistance as he continued to speak of his love for her. His passion rose to frenzied proportions and his tenderness soon turned rough.
Now that he had her, he wasn’t going to waste any time.
He continued to tell her how much he loved her, which made her uncertainty fade. If he loved her so much, then surely what he was doing was his right. He was demonstrating that love. When he was finished pawing her, he grabbed her by both arms and pushed her down onto the cold, dirty floor.
The straw beneath them was dry but dirty as he pushed her onto her back and began fumbling with the bottom of her long woolen robe, the same woolens that all pledges of St. Blitha wore. His body was heavy atop her, squirming on her, and her uncertainty returned. We s
hould not be doing this, she said, but he assured her that this was what people who loved each other did.
She believed him.
The woolens were shoved up, past her knees, to her hips, as he tugged and pulled, trying to expose her white body beneath him. When she tried to protest, he captured her mouth with his lips, his tongue pushing into her pink recesses. With his mouth keeping her occupied, his hands continued to yank up the woolens, exposing her belly. He couldn’t pull it any further, so his hand snaked underneath, fondling her round breasts and feeling her nipples harden against his palm.
This is what people do who love one another, Andressa. Trust me.
But she couldn’t relax, not when he was pinching her nipple, running his hands all over her breasts. His mouth continued to feast on her face, all over her face, distracting her from what he was doing with his hands as he continued to tell her how much he loved her. She tried to push him away one last time, but she didn’t do a very good job of it. It was true that she loved him, and she’d missed him as much as he missed her.
This is what people do who love each other.
She wanted him to know she loved him, too.
She stopped resisting.
Then, he was fumbling at his own clothing, lowering his hose and rubbing his stiff erection against her thigh. She felt his hardness, greatly apprehensive. His mouth moved across her face again and he shifted his body, pushing himself between her thighs. Without hesitation, he slid his manhood into her virginal body.
She gasped with surprise as he thrust into her. It stung and was uncomfortable. But he ignored her gasps of pain and thrust into her one more time to completely seat himself. In that action, her virginity became a memory, but he didn’t care. His mouth was on her ear now, groaning of his love for her once more, telling her how slick and warm she was, and how his love for her was now complete.
But she wasn’t at all at ease with what he was doing to her, love or not. He was heavy on her, and her woolen garment was around her neck and mostly covering her face now as he repeatedly thrust into her, lifting her legs up to allow him more room to move. She lay there, motionless and overwhelmed, but she kept telling herself over and over that he loved her. He was doing this because he wanted to show her how much he loved her.